Minority populations continue to be underrepresented on medical school faculties in the US, per the American Association of Medical Colleges. This is in contrast to projected demographic changes in the US that indicate increasing Hispanic and African-American populations and a decreasing European-American population. The dearth of underrepresented minority engaged in biomedical research could impair the ability of the scientific community to adequately recognize, identify or address, specific health problems that are of particular concern or unique to minority communities and individuals. The goal of this program is to help address this critical imbalance. This is a competing renewal of a 3 year grant. During the first two years, we have entered eight MS students from Jackson State University (JSU), matriculated two into the Indiana University (IU) PhD program with a third entering this year and additional students within the pipeline. The program's objective is to continue the formal partnership with JSU in which their students and faculty and ours benefit from a sustained relationship. The outcome of this collaboration will result in: 1) Master's curricula that link with first year doctoral curricula, 2) Faculty members from JSU with established collaborations with senior faculty at IU, and 3) As many as nine additional minority students graduating from the master's program at JSU and being admitted and retained within the PhD. Programs in the basic medical sciences at IU. We will accomplish the objectives by implementation of a number of initiatives: (A) IU and JSU faculty will discuss the content of master's degree course work and first-year doctoral courses to ensure curricula overlaps appropriately; (B) IU faculty will mentor JSU scholars; (C) three JSU master's students will be selected annually as fellows which will entitle them to summer research experience at IU and tuition remission and assistantships during their course work and thesis research; (D) Guaranteed admission to IU graduate school at Indianapolis upon completion of specific criteria with assistance to make application/admission a seamless process; and (E) Provide professional training and multi-tiered mentorship to enhance JSU student readiness for doctoral work at IU. JSU and IU faculty and student interactions will help us together gain an enhanced respect for each others strengths and weaknesses and work more efficiently towards our combined ultimate goal: more well-trained and enthusiastic underrepresented ethnic minority PhD researchers and teachers. [unreadable] [unreadable]